GEOGRAFIA Online TM Malaysia Journal of Society and Space 10 issue 8 (97 – 113) 97 Themed issue on tourism in new development dimension © 2014, ISSN 2180-2491 Peranan media sosial Tripadvisor dalam mempromosikan Tapak Warisan Dunia Melaka Habibah Ahmad 1 , Nur Farahin Zainuddin 1 , Hamzah Jusoh 1 , Amriah Buang 1 , Er Ah Choy 1 , Sri Winarni Samsir 1 , Hazita Azman 1 , Mastura Mahmud 1 1 Pusat Pengajian Sosial, Pembangunan dan Persekitaran, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2 Pejabat Kedekanan, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Correspondence: Habibah Ahmad (email: ha@ukm.edu.my) Abstrak Kajian ini dilakukan bagi menganalisis peranan media sosial terutamanya pengguna TripAdvisor dalam memberikan komentar dan E-Wom, bagi tujuan mempromosikan Tapak Warisan Dunia Melaka. Berasaskan analisis kandungan ke atas 986 pengguna online, hasil kajian mendapati bahawa mereka telah menyumbang dalam mempromosikan aTapak Warisan Dunia Melaka dalam beberapa aspek. Para penulis online telah mempromosikan cirian warisan yang terdapat di sesebuah hotel dan juga pelancongan warisan secara menyeluruh. Di peringkat mikro iaitu di peringkat hotel, promosi terfokus kepada bangunan, landskap, makanan atau gastronomi dan bilik. Di peringkat makro – pelancongan warisan, tarikan utama yang berada dalam lokaliti hotel di mana mereka menginap diberikan promosi yang berkesan. E-wom daripada pengguna online bagaimanapun mempunyai hubungan korelasi dengan kualiti penginapan yang diingini oleh para penulis online. Kajian ini menyarankan agar komentar pengguna atas talian menjadi mekanisme yang kukuh dalam mempromosikan pelancongan warisan Melaka dan bandar warisan yang lain. Katakunci: E-wom, media sosial, promosi, Tapak Warisan Dunia Melaka, tarikan warisan, TripAdvisor The role of sosial media Tripadvisor in promoting the World Heritage Site of Malacca Abstract This study was undertaken to unpack the roles of social media, particularly the TripAdvisor users’ roles in providing hotel quality performances and E-Woms to help promote the World Heritage Site of Malacca. Based on a content analysis of 986 online users, findings reveal that online users help to promote heritage tourism in several aspects. Their contributions help to promote hotels in featuring inhouse heritage characteristics and heritage tourism in Malacca at large. On a micro level that is at the hotel level, their promotions were centred to the buildings, landscape, food or gastronomy, services and rooms. On a wider perspective of heritage tourism, major attractions within the locality of the hotels were highly promoted. The E-woms from the online users however showed a correlation with the quality of hotel services that the online users seek for. This study suggests that online user reviews can become a strong mechanism in promoting the heritage tourism in Malacca as well as other heritage cities. Keywords: E-wom (Electronic word-of-mouth), heritage attraction, promotion, sosial media, TripAdvisor, World Heritage Site